MuchMusic and the Glory Days

Recently my Dad reported he'd found a new channel he didn't realize he received, and asked if I was familiar with Much.

Music. It's MuchMusic.

Except, it's not; not anymore, not since the "Music" was dropped in 2011, when Bell Canada took over the station and diluted the remaining original content with a slew of teen soaps and shows regurgitated from affiliate channels.

Nonetheless, MuchMusic will always remain the backdrop of my youth, its familiar faces etched in my mind as the friends and allies of my bumpy adolescence.

I heard a comment on the radio recently about how the majority of young people today know nothing beyond the abstract musical format downloaded to their digital devices. I can't lie about just how old this observation made me feel - remembering some of my very first cassettes (Soul Asylum's Grave Dancers Union, Live's Throwing Copper, Hole's Live Through This). My long-time fanatical obsession with Gavin Rossdale of Bush X, learning every single word to Sixteen Stone and playing the tape over and over until it was imprinted on my being. Recalling the very first CD I ever received for my birthday, Tripping Daisy's I Am an Elastic Firecracker, or how I saved my money to finally buy The Smashing Pumpkins' Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the way I pored over the CD booklets and listened to Beautiful on repeat as I dreamily doodled suns and moons in the pages of my journal.

MuchMusic had a monumental impact on my process of growth, always supplying me with an anthem for whatever teenage triumph or crisis was unfolding. And perhaps I'm simply dating myself reminiscing over the "good ol' days", for surely there's some equivalent medium serving as the musical context for today's youth. I remain unconvinced, however, that it'll ever rival the splendor of Muchmusic in all it's Video-on-Demand-Much-Megahits-Intimate-and-Interactive glory.

In no particular order, 10 reasons why MuchMusic - in its former greatness - remains the best there ever was:

1) Ed the Sock

Who could've guessed a crude, green-haired sock puppet would ever grow into such a Canadian icon? Ed the Sock was a MuchMusic fixture in the late 90s, frequently testing the broadcast boundaries with argumentative banter and offhanded insults. Somewhat impossible to love, MuchMusic devotees remain strangely endeared to this insolent, cigar-smoking creature, who is perhaps most fondly remembered for his end-of-year Fromage special counting down the worst and cheesiest videos of the past twelve months.

2) "Oil oil, in the sun."

I cannot for the life of me find any evidence of MuchMusic's bizarre commercial branding anywhere amid the Internets. And likely I'm going out on a limb here with this odd remembrance but I know for a fact that one spring break in particular was marked by a gyrating sunflower singing, "Oil oil, in the sun", and that my teenaged self friggin' loved the absurdity of that non-sensical flower.

3) Rick the Temp, George Stroumboulopoulos, Bill Welychka, Sook-Yin-Lee, Master T, Rachel Perry, Rainbow Sun Francks

Always inspired by boyish good looks, Rick Campanelli and George Stroumboulopoulos ranked as my favoured personalities, while curly-haired Bill Welchyka met with passive tolerance (mostly on account of his marginal resemblance to heartthrob Gavin Rossdale). And while I fondly remember Rachel Perry for the time she pissed off Matt Good at an Edgefest of years past, I could never relate much to Sook-Yin-Lees unique eclecticism nor Master T's penchant for hip-hop.

As gatekeepers of the goods, it became all too easy to scorn a VJ for failing to play the song you'd been waiting all day to hear. Nevertheless, they were like friends you invited into your home on the daily, always relied upon to deliver the musical merchandise. (And just in case you're curious: Where They Are Now).

4) Nardwuar, the Human Serviette

Like Ed the Sock, Nardwuar counts as yet another strange Canadian icon, and interestingly, was in the news recently after recovering from a stroke. Best known for his tartan cap, quirky interview style, and signature catchphrase, Nardwuar was a Muchmusic mainstay throughout the years.

"Keep on rocking in the free world, and doot doola doot doo..." (your turn).

5) Intimate and Interactive

Intimate and Interactive, a show featuring in-house concerts and audience questions, was by far one of my favourite MuchMusic programs, offering a small-town girl like myself, who hadn't yet had the privilege of a live show, the next closest thing.

I recall pushing the coffee table to the corner of the living room when the Foo Fighters performed in 1997, jumping and shaking to my heart's content. Or when Silverchair performed that same year, and how my best friend and I recorded it on VHS and re-enacted the show in her basement with the lights off and strobe berserkly blinking as we headbanged to the raging beat of Israel's Son.

6) Speaker's Corner

Speaker's Corner is yet another trademark of the CHUM media outlet that spawned MuchMusic (CHUM, backwards, in case you hadn't already realized), showcasing a kind of early reality TV. Pedestrians dropped change into the Speaker's Corner booth for a brief chance to talk about...well, anything.

It wasn't the political or activist rants that kept me hooked as a teenager, but the spectacle of those intoxicated groups of people who frequently made the mistake of soapboxing on their way home from the bar, in all likelihood saying and doing things they regretted come morning. (Shame Corner, more like it?)

7) MuchMusic Video Dance Parties

MuchMusic video dance parties: the highlight of my middle school existence, and tragically short-lived. I'm not sure why our school organizers ever stopped coordinating MuchMusic Video Dance Parties, though I have a suspicion they picked up on it being too much, too fast. (Nine minutes of stickily clinging to your pseudo-boyfriend while turning circles to Guns 'N' Roses' November Rain is enough to scare off any school dance chaperone.) Still, what an absolutely genius marketing move on MuchMusic's part to expose kids to their product as early as suitably possible.

8) Electric Circus, French Kiss, RapCity

You have to give it to MuchMusic: as much as my own memories centre on the 90s grunge mania saturating my youth (and which seems to have resurged as of late, if Forever 21 is any indication), one of the station's biggest successes was their willingness to offer a bit of something for everyone. My adolescent self abhorred the spunky pop dancers of Electric Circus, the alien artform of French Kiss and the urban music of RapCity. In hindsight, however, MuchMusic's embrace of any and all genres is exactly the reason it gained such a devoted following all those years.

9) Big Shiny Tunes

Big Shiny Tunes is a compilation of some of the station's most well-played rock songs and, according to Wikipedia, got as far as Big Shiny Tunes 14 in 2009. Truthfully, I had no idea that the cassette I'd jammed into my Walkman in the late 90s had evolved into such a longstanding series. For me, the albums stand as a time capsule for my youth, with the songs evoking memories of camping out on a towel on the back lawn during the summertime, or plastering the journals I'd eventually fill with teenaged meanderings.

10) Canadian Content

Perhaps MuchMusic's biggest achievement, in my eyes, is its success in exposing me to a diversity of solid, Canadian music. I consider myself lucky to have been offered such a broad range of music at such a young age, and I appreciate MuchMusic's effort to give Canadian artists much-deserved exposure. Even the songs I didn't care for at the time will reappear from the folds of my memory, transporting me back to a certain time and place. They may be obscure, but for me, they represent a story. And for other Canadian millennials, I expect the same is true.